In this episode of Your Dream Business, I talk about why case studies and testimonials are more than just nice extras — they’re essential for building trust and showing what my business can really do. I share my TRUST method — Tell the problem, Roadblock, Uncover what they did, Show the results, Transformation, to help you gather rich, meaningful stories from your clients, not just vague praise. These are the stories that make your work feel real and show potential clients what’s possible.
I also urge you not to save case studies and testimonials for the end of a project only. I believe they should be woven into every part of your marketing: on your website, in emails, social media, sales pages—everywhere you communicate. By using them regularly, you demonstrate impact consistently, deepen trust, and turn past successes into powerful tools that help attract new business.
Key Takeaways
1. Case Studies & Testimonials Build TrustUsing authentic stories of problems → solutions → results helps prospects see what’s possible, and builds credibility more effectively than generic claims.
2. TRUST Method for Collecting Testimonials
A framework you can follow to get richer, more persuasive testimonials:
- Tell the problem — What issue was the client facing before?
- Roadblock — What was stopping them from solving that problem?
- Uncover what they did — What actions did they take? What intervention / your service / product?
- Show the results — What measurable change happened?
- Transformation — How did life/business change for them more broadly beyond the numbers?
3. Use Case Studies Throughout the Marketing Process
- Don’t wait until after a launch or at the end of a project—incorporate stories early (in prospecting, content, emails, etc.).
- Show incremental wins, before‑and‑after, behind‑the‑scenes: people connect to journey, not just destination.
4. Frequent Sharing is Key
- Regularly share testimonials & case studies on social media, website, email.
- Amplifies evidence of success over time—prospects see real proof, consistency, not just occasional highlights.
5. Be Proactive in Asking for Testimonials
- Make it part of your process: after milestones, at the end of services, or even in the middle when there’s already visible progress.
- Ask clients in a way that prompts for detail: by using the TRUST structure, you get richer content.
Practical Examples & Applications
Integrate stories into email sequences and sales pages—not just “here’s what people said at the end,” but early proof points.
Use video or quotes with metrics (e.g. percent increase, time saved) to make results tangible.
Mix big transformations and small wins—both are powerful in different contexts (someone just starting out, someone comparing options, etc.).
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Episode 420 – Behind the Scenes: Designing a Launch That Works for YOU
Connect with Kristin on Website, Linkedin, Instagram
Connect with Teresa on Website, (Grow, Launch, Sell), Sign up to Teresa’s email list, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook
Transcript
If you are not leveraging case studies and testimonials, you are missing out on one of the most powerful tools in your marketing toolkit. In this episode, I’m gonna be sharing with you how many case studies Amy shared, not only in her 90 minute master class, but also over a number of her emails. And I think it’s going to surprise you.
I’m also going to be sharing my trust method, which is how you can collect really good high quality case studies for your business.
Welcome to the Your Dream Business Podcast. I’m your hosts heat wearing. An international bestselling author, award-winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast.
I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you and the season of life that you are in. In each episode, I’ll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your [00:01:00] online business. Plus we’ll be diving into some mindset, tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated.
And are going to stop you from getting in your own way. So if you’re a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you are in the right place. Let’s get started.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. Now if you have been listening for a while, thank you. First off.
Second off, you will know. I love really practical episodes where I give you some really strategical stuff to do, and today’s episode is not going to be any different. What I want you to do me a favor. Today’s episode is so important for every single business owner that you know, and you’ll see why as we get into it, that I would love you to think of a friend who has a business that you could go and forward this episode to because this is something that every [00:02:00] business owner needs to get much better at doing.
And I have a really good proven system to help business owners get better at it, and therefore, I would really appreciate it if you’d share it. Anyway. That sounds very strange. Saying all that without actually telling you what it’s about. Today we’re gonna be talking about testimonials and case studies. I want to give you a little insight as to how important these are and how when you’re doing a launch, you are probably not doing anywhere near enough.
So case studies and testimonials. The reason we need case studies and testimonials is because they really help us demonstrate that we can do what we say we’re doing. They really help build that trust with our audience, and also we help them see what’s possible. Often when we work with people and we’re trying to offer our service to them, there is lots of doubt that, you know, will it ever work for them?
[00:03:00] It worked for other people. Is this gonna be a thing that works for me? So in showing and demonstrating that other people have achieved the things that they want to is really, really important. And I’m gonna talk you through my trust method where I take you through the various letters and explain to you what you need to do when you are collecting these case studies and testimonials.
Because like I said, I’m telling you now for sure, you are probably not collecting enough and you are absolutely not sharing enough. In a launch, you should be sharing them throughout the entire launch. And one of the things that I see all the time is whether you are doing a webinar masterclass or whether you’re doing a bootcamp or a challenge, when people get into the selling, that’s the point where they share the testimonials and what they tend to do is literally at the end of the whole selling thing is this is what some nice people have to say about me.
And that is just not the way it works, and that is definitely not enough to [00:04:00] help show and demonstrate and build that trust. To give you an idea, the last launch I did, which was my bootcamp. I shared, I did a bootcamp, and then I did a masterclass, two standalone master classes. I went back and looked at my masterclass presentation, and within the presentation all the way through, this wasn’t just at the end, this was through the presentation.
I shared 11 case studies in a 90 minute presentation. Amy, in her last launch that she did in a 90 minute presentation, she shared 18 case studies. So I’m a little bit off. I need to add some more, but this isn’t just. Like I said, putting a few at the end, this is literally weaving it into the entire presentation or weaving it into the entire bootcamp.
So when I did my bootcamp every single session, I shared at least one case study. Then when we got into the sales emails, I weaved them all throughout the [00:05:00] sales emails. I over 10 emails shared 11 case studies. Amy, I didn’t go through all her emails, but over seven emails, she shared 22 case studies, and that doesn’t include the screenshots that she shared and that I shared.
So. When I say case study, I’m not just saying what they wrote about you. When I say case study, what I mean is you are giving us a bit of the story, so you’re telling us maybe where they started, what they did and the results that they got, and then obviously a quote from them. But it’s not just going, this is what they said about me.
There’s a much stronger structure to it. And then like I said, throughout her email, she also screenshot things from groups that basically said, oh my God, I’ve just done X, Y, Z. Now I just wanna put this in perspective. Amy has been doing this a very long time and has had thousands upon thousands of students go her through her program, and therefore is not short of case studies.
I [00:06:00] know that this is something that people struggle with because within Grow Launch, Sell, within my own world, I have lots of conversations of I just don’t have enough. And I agree that part of that is the amount of time that people have been doing it and the amount of people who have gone through programs.
But also I suspect it’s a case of not asking enough either. So what I’m going to go through with you today is the trust method, and basically this is the method that I teach in terms of getting people to actually, well, getting case studies and testimonials that actually give people proper information.
So let’s start with the T. The T is tell the problem. The very first thing you need to do when you’re collecting this information is you need to ask them what challenges or issues they were facing or what wasn’t working for them. And this is basically the pain. You are making sure that you are making it really clear.
Where [00:07:00] did they start? What was the pain that they started with? And this often is where your current customers are. So by saying this is the struggle they’ve had, you are then able to demonstrate, okay, this is what they’re able to do. I’ve got a really lovely one where Kristin, who has been in my world for a while, she had done some webinars before being in my world and her signups were really low and no one turned up live. And then she worked with me and her signups went up and people turned up.
That is a really nice, talking about the problem of where they were because people can relate to, I just can’t get people to sign up, or people are signing up and they’re just not turning up. So the T uh, in the beginning of trust is tell the problem what challenge or issue they are facing, what wasn’t working for them.
Let’s go to the R. The R is the roadblock. So what was standing in their way of fixing it? Or [00:08:00] what had they tried and struggled with before? Again, this is really important to know, not only for, and actually as a side point, this is great for obviously demonstrating to people, you know what you’re talking about and you can actually help them with the thing that they.
You know they need help with. But this, from an information point of view for you, is also brilliant. So imagine that you are getting on a call with someone you’ve worked with who’s done a brilliant job, and you are asking them these questions or you are going through this, this method with them and. The information that you could get from it, which you can then use in other places like sales emails and sales pages.
So if they say in R for the roadblock, actually, I’ve tried this, I’d done this, I’d done this, and none of it had worked. Then you could, in a sales email or on a sales page say, have you tried dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, and nothing worked. Like, and using the language, the words, the. The things that they say is the most powerful.
[00:09:00] So yeah, R is the roadblock. What was standing in your way? What have they tried? What were they struggling with? So these first couple of letters are just about getting them to really remember where they were so that you can paint a real good picture in your case study about where have they been? Where have they, they got to.
U is uncover what they did. So this really, and hopefully is the bit where you come in, but you are not gonna talk. They’re going to talk or they’re gonna write this for you. And in this bit what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to find out what happened. And like I said, I really hope that this is the point where they go, well, I came to your world, or I did your program, or I followed your advice.
So what did they do? What support strategy or method did they use with your help? So for instance, I teach and I’m probably one of the only. I don’t know anybody else who does this actually. But rather than picking one launch method, which [00:10:00] lots of other people do, and they teach on that specific method, ’cause that’s what they’re well known for.
I teach on all of them. And the reason I teach on all of them is because I am very obsessed with the fact that. We’re all different. Our businesses are different. Our price points are different, and it’s definitely not a one size fits all. If you listened to episode 4 2 0, you will hear me doing an actual real life case study, as it were about Louise who had a particular membership, and we had to use a mix of various launch methods in order to put together a launch that fit with her, her audience, her price point, and her energy and her offer.
So. Where this, sorry, where this uncover what they did comes in is it’s really helpful if you do have different strategies. So for instance, I might have someone who did the open house method, or I might have someone who did the webinar method, or I might have someone who finally understood how to sell because I [00:11:00] taught ’em how to sell.
Or it might be that they finally created the sales page or the sales emails or had the confidence. So even though. When someone works with you, you have a theme of what you do. Let’s get into the nitty gritty in this bit. Like was there something particular? Was it the fact of they learned how to do the sales page in my case?
Or I encourage and send more emails and I help them tell them what to write. Like what was it that they actually did? And the more detail you can get on this, the better. Now, just to bear in mind, you don’t have to share everything that you are getting an answer for here, but the more you can get these answers, great.
Okay. The S. The S is show the results. Show the results. What happened next. So for instance, let me go back to my KristIn conversation that I said at the beginning. So her problem was that she was doing webinars, she was getting people to sign up, but not many. I have actually got the [00:12:00] actual numbers. She gave me the actual numbers, which I share in case studies when I do webinars and things.
And it was something like she was getting 30 people to sign up and no one was showing up. So that was telling the problem. Her roadblock was that. It just wasn’t working, that she had followed the advice that she thought she had to do and it wasn’t working. She had tried to piece together herself. She tried to go alone.
She tried to research stuff and it just wasn’t working. Her uncover what they did was she came and worked with me and we put together the proper strategy, and I guess in this case, we could really focus on getting them to turn up live. So I could say, well, I gave her the emails that you need. To get them to show up live, obviously I wouldn’t say that ’cause I’d be interviewing her and she’d be saying this, and then when it said, show the results, what happened next?
What changes or results? Did they see this for me, tends to come down to the actual results, the numbers, the the real changes. So for her, and [00:13:00] in this case study, it would be, well, the next webinar that she did, I think she got 90 something to sign up and she got 27 or something to actually turn up. So she actually did her first ever webinar.
With people on it, which I can’t tell you how exciting that is if you’ve done webinars with no one on it. So show the results. The S is about demonstrating what those results are and making sure you get as many details of them as possible. Now, ideally in launches. So it is very easy for me to get number results and work out percentages and work out.
How many of their lists signed up to their launch list and how many of their launch list actually bought, or how many engaged? If it’s not as easy as that, then you might have to think slightly more outta the box. In terms of what else were the results in terms of maybe they got a new job, maybe they got a promotion, maybe they, you know.
Did something different. And then the final [00:14:00] T is transformation. So, you know how well I say, you know, um, if you’ve been in my world a while, you might know. When I talk about understanding the transformation, it’s one of the most important things you can do in your business. Like, I don’t care what business you’ve got, you have to understand the transformation.
The example I give for this is a, um, airline. Airlines do not promote horrible economy squeezed in seats with crappy food. They don’t because no one wants that, right? No one necessarily. I mean, you might love sitting in an economy and eating the food and hey, awesome, right? But most people don’t necessarily want the flight they want where the flight takes them.
So when an airline markets. They send me emails of beautiful looking locations, mountains and hills and beaches because what we want is the destination. We don’t necessarily want the journey. And the same is [00:15:00] true about your transformation and about your product. Your customers don’t necessarily want your product, so you will know again, if you’ve been listening to a while.
Um, I’ve had a lot of therapy. I had about five years. Nonstop therapy. I didn’t necessarily want to actually have the therapy. I didn’t necessarily want to get on a call every single week and dig around in stuff that I don’t wanna talk about. But I wanted the transformation. I wanted the result at the end.
Now, there are many different ways and many different products that I could have chose to get that transformation. I could have done CBT, I could have done something a bit more woo. I could have done anything. However, I chose therapy, so it wasn’t the product I wanted, it was the transformation. Again, let’s say you teach Facebook ads.
People don’t necessarily, or let’s say your customers, you are not teaching other experts to do Facebook ads. Let’s say you’re teaching business owners to do Facebook ads. They don’t wanna know how to do Facebook ads, right? Let’s be really clear about that. [00:16:00] If I could run my business and not have to do Facebook ads, great.
If I didn’t have to learn this stuff, great, I wouldn’t. But what I want is the transformation of more people in my world, more customers, more signups, more people on my email list. So they have the pain where they are, and it’s the transformation that they’re after. And your product and service just happens to be the thing that helps us get there.
So with the trust method, we start with the T of telling the problem, which is the pain, and we finish with the T of the transformation. So when I. Demonstrate this in presentations. I literally have two mountains and I go, your customer is on Mountain One and they’re trying to get to Mountain Two. And with this trust method, we are starting them on Mountain One and we are finishing on Mountain Two.
So what was the transformation? And this is where you can go a little bit deeper. So with Kristin. I can talk about, you know, this were the numbers that she got signed up that show the results under s but under transformation, I talk about the fact of, and it’s making me [00:17:00] smile even as I say this, and I, it’s a nice smile.
I can talk about the fact of not only the relief and the confidence of, oh my goodness, people actually turned up. That was amazing. And her confidence grew. And the next webinar she did, she got 200 odd people on, and even more people turn up live. But she actually sold something and the story she told me, and I know she won’t mind me sharing this, so I’ve shared it many times over.
And I will actually make sure we link up to Kristin in the show notes. She is a gluten-free coach. She has a YouTube channel, so if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/422 you will find Kristin’s details. We’ll make sure we link them, but. She messaged me saying, I’m stood in the supermarket and someone’s just bought, and I burst into tears.
Like that is the transformation. That is the, like you will remember that if. At the end of this podcast, I tried to get you to repeat the [00:18:00] numbers to me. You might not be able to do that, but if I said to you what happened when she someone bought, you’d remember that. ’cause we remember those things. We remember the emotion, we remember the stories.
So what stories, what emotion, what transformation can they share? How does life look now? What deeper shift did they have? What confidence or freedom or clarity, what has happened as a result of getting the people on that webinar. In Kristin’s case, what has happened as the result of learning Facebook ads?
Go back to my other example. Again. It’s not about, you know, on this example, you know, on the Facebook ads example, you know, showing the results was I put this amount of money and I got this many leads. The transformation was I grew the business. I was able to sell more. I finally have a way in which I can bring people into my business that is repeatable and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.
So let me go through the method again, or the the letters again. T is for tell the problem. [00:19:00] R is for roadblock. U is uncover what they did. S is show the results and T is transformation. When you go and ask people for case studies, those are the letters or those are the themes I want you to make sure we get because that is going to make a great, fully rounded case study that you can share with your audience.
Like I said at the beginning, please do me a favor pass this episode onto another business owner because I one of the massive issues that we have as business owners and I have lots of women in my world and I feel like it happens more with women. Is that we don’t like to tell people that we’re awesome.
I made this mistake for years. I had people come and join my stuff because they liked me, which don’t get me wrong, I love that. But then I had so many people who didn’t join my stuff, who didn’t pay to work with me because liking me wasn’t enough because they wanted the transformation, but I was too. I don’t [00:20:00] know what the word is, like imposter syndrome, confidence.
I just didn’t want to be completely honest about the transformation I could offer. I worried that it wouldn’t look real. I worried it wouldn’t look genuine. I worried it would look showy, offy. And man, that was a massive mistake. A huge mistake. No one else is gonna sing our praises. We might get some customers that do it, and that is awesome, but we need to be doing it.
So I am gonna challenge you and I want you to DM me and tell me, and I replied to all my DMs. So please come over to Instagram. I am on LinkedIn a little bit, but I’m rubbish and I take ages to get back to you. So. Instagram. If not, I can do LinkedIn. Come and DM me and tell me that you’ve gone and reached out to someone and asked them to do a testimonial.
You can either email them and say, could you answer these questions and basically make some questions out of the trust method. So could you tell me where you were when we started? What was the pain? What was the problem? Could you tell me [00:21:00] what was holding you back, or why hadn’t you achieved the thing you wanted?
Can you tell me? What we did together or what was it about working together that really helped you? Can you share any results and how does life feel now? Or how does the business feel now? So you can either email that to them or you can ask to get on a call and record the call and ask these questions. I want you to do that this week and I want you to DM me and tell me that you’ve done it.
Because there are some things in business that the amount of time and effort we put into do them pay us back tenfold, and this is one of them. Okay. I really hope I’ve inspired you to do that. Please do come and tell me. I genuinely do care and I’m interested and please do share this with someone else. I hope this is helpful and I will be back next week with another interview.
I will see you then.
